Corsair cv550 review in Spanish (full analysis)

Corsair's catalog of power supplies is one of the most varied on the market, with models starting at 40 euros for the VS450, up to 450 euros for the AX1600i, covering in between practically all possible market segments. Today we will have in our hands its latest low-cost launch, the Corsair CV550.

This CV range is between the VS (80 Plus White at a low price) and the CX (80 Plus Bronze at a slightly higher price), and could be considered as an evolution of the VS to achieve the Bronze efficiency level.

We thank Corsair for trusting us with this product for analysis.

Corsair CV550 Technical Specifications

External analysis

We start as always by unboxing the font.

On the back we are already given more detailed information on the most relevant features of the PSU, such as its 3-year warranty period, which may be a bit short but is expected from an affordable source.

The inner protection of the box is, as you might expect, poor, but not non-existent. We prefer to cut costs on packaging than, for example, electrical safety. Note that in addition to the source, the power cable and screws are included. Other brands choose to remove them from their most affordable sources.

We now turn to remove the source from the box, the first thing that surprises is undoubtedly its ultra-compact design , with only 12.5 centimeters in length. This will be especially beneficial in assemblies with compact boxes or that leave little gap for cabling organization.

Something that also shows a lot at first glance is the non-modular design of the Corsair CV550, this is more than understandable in a PSU that costs less than 50 euros, taking into account that most of the modular models that can be found at these Prices are of very low quality and sometimes even false specs. If you want to go deeper into this topic, take a look at our article on modular fonts.

The front of the fountain has a curious embossed Corsair logo , something that strongly restricts its air flow. We don't understand why they do this, but it's also not something that has to take anyone's sleep away;). Let's take a closer look at the Corsair CV550's cable management.

Cabling management

The wiring is meshed, but unlike what we are used to seeing in sources of higher ranges, the wire under the mesh is colored, something that evidently takes away points in aesthetics from the PSU.

Interestingly, all versions of the Corsair CV carry exactly the same number of cables. This would make it difficult to recommend any model that was not the cheapest (the 450W), considering that it is a source oriented to affordable equipment, and that the three available versions use the same internal platform (and therefore are very similar internally).

The quantity and distribution of the connectors is as expected in a source of this range, so we have no complaints about it.

As we see, the length of the CV wiring is reasonable, we have no complaints in this regard beyond that the CPU cable could have been a tad longer. Otherwise, all good.

Internal analisis

This new CV range is manufactured by HEC, as is the case with the VS and with some other range such as Vengeance Silver. This manufacturer usually stands out for reasonably good low-cost designs, but as we always say it all depends on the specific model. A review would be useless if the brand alone was truly decisive, right?;).

The internal topology used on the primary side is Double Forward, a cheaper technology than others like LLC that we usually see in higher level sources (but that is decent), On the other hand, on the secondary side we have a group regulation design. This is an old technology, in which the voltages of the 12V and 5V rail are regulated “together”, something that is not ideal for current equipment in which almost all the load falls on the 12V rail, and which also does the source incompatible with Intel's C6 and C7 power saving states (the latter is indicated by Corsair itself).

We would have liked the brand to have used DC-DC converters, that way it would have an internal design differentiated from the VS, since what we have here is nothing more than a slightly updated VS550 to reach Bronze efficiency levels.

Fortunately,

Regarding primary filtering, we have a fairly extensive coverage of the SIP (Surge & Inrush Protection), that is, we have the expected NTC thermistor to suppress current peaks that occur at ignition and a varistor or MOV to give a slight surge protection. It could be said that we are missing a relay next to the NTC, but it is not at all something essential.

The primary capacitor is Taiwanese, a Teapo of the LG series with a capacity of 270 microfarads, 400V and with a rating of 2000 hours of durability at 105ºC of temperature (much higher in practice, for example, 100, 000 hours at 50ºC), the Same rating that we are used to seeing in most sources with Japanese primary condenser.

More than a decent choice of capacitors on the secondary side, considering that we are facing such an affordable source. Specifically, we have Teapo of the SC series, some light-year capacitors from other options seen in sources of this range.

Now we go to see the chip in charge of supervising a good part of the protections, we have a Weltrend WT7527, much better than other ultrabasic options that can be seen in this range.

Of course, it is noteworthy that Corsair is betting on achieving minimum levels of protection in all its sources, not forgetting some as important as OTP (overheating) and including them in absolutely all its ranges.

Regarding the fan, it is the well-known (or at least widely used due to its low cost) Yate Loon D12SH-12. It has Sleeve bearing, so its durability is limited, we understand that this is where the 3-year warranty comes from.

Even with relaxed rev control, this fan's motor is slightly audible and a discerning user will notice, but on affordable equipment it may be masked by other components.

After analyzing the interior of the fountain, we see that it reaches levels of decency that make us not put our hands to our heads, but we are really disappointed that Corsair has not opted for a DC-DC design in the middle of 2020, since that to offer an ultra-affordable and group-regulated model they already had the VS.

Cybenetics performance tests

Cybenetics is a company born in 2017 to offer an alternative to the 80 Plus certifying tests. The company seeks to offer more stringent and demanding certifications, with a greater number of tests, covering more loading scenarios and, in short, with a more complete methodology than that of 80 Plus (which, in fact, is quite simple). In addition to the ETA efficiency certification, they offer LAMBDA loudness certification, something that 80 Plus does not offer.

In addition to all this, for all the sources that test they offer a public report and accessible to everyone with the results of a large number of performance tests that have nothing to do with efficiency certification but are useful to know the quality and performance of the power supply.

For this reason, for several months we have included Cybenetics tests in all our reviews whenever we can, due to three reasons:

1. Cybenetics equipment, valued at tens of thousands of euros (perhaps close to € 100, 000), is light years away from the humble and too basic performance tests we can do with the web team. use the data from your performance tests as long as they are given the proper attribution. Using this data allows us to give a much better view of the quality of the source, in addition to having the didactic purpose that users understand the tests and analyze for yourself the quality of a source's performance.

Having said that, let's go with a small explanation of the meaning of the different tests that we are going to show.

Cybenetics testing explained

As the tests carried out by Cybenetics have some complexity, we explain in these tabs what is measured and what is its importance.

This is information that we will include in all our reviews with data from Cybenetics so, if you already know how the test structure works, you can continue reading. If not, we recommend you take a look at all the tabs to find out what each test is about. ?

• Glossary of terms Voltage regulation Ripple Efficiency Loudness Hold-up time

Let's go with a small glossary of some terms that could be somewhat confusing:

• Rail: PC sources that follow the ATX standard (like this one) do not have a single outlet, but several, which are distributed in " rails ". Each of those rails outputs a specific voltage, and can supply a specific maximum current. We show you the rails of this Thor in the image below. The most important is 12V.

  

  Crossload: When testing a power supply, the most common is that the loads made on each rail are proportional to their "weight" in the power distribution table of the source. However, it is known that the actual loads of the equipment are not like this, but are usually very unbalanced. Therefore, there are two tests called "crossload" in which a single group of rails is loaded.

  On the one hand, we have the CL1 that leaves the 12V rail unloaded and gives 100% at 5V and 3.3V. On the other, the CL2 that 100% loads the 12V rail leaving the rest unloaded. This type of testing, of limit situations, truly shows if the source has a good regulation of voltages or not.

The voltage regulation test consists of measuring the voltage of each source rail (12V, 5V, 3.3V, 5VSB) in the different load scenarios, in this case from 10 to 110% load. The importance of this test lies in how stable all voltages are maintained during testing. Ideally, we like to see a maximum deviation of 2 or 3% for the 12V rail, and 5% for the rest of the rails.

What does not matter so much is 'what voltage is it based on', although it is a fairly widespread myth, it should not matter to us that the 11.8V or the 12.3V are around for example. What we do demand is that they be kept within the limits of the ATX standard that governs the correct operation rules of a PSU. The dashed red lines indicate where those limits are.

Vulgarly, it can be defined as the "residuals" of alternating current that remain after the transformation and rectification of the household AC into low-voltage DC.

These are variations of some millivolts (mV) that, if they are very high (being able to say that there is a "dirty" energy output) can affect the behavior of the equipment components and in some cases damage fundamental components.

A very guiding description of what a source's ripple would look like on an oscilloscope. In the graphs below what we show is the variation between peaks like the ones seen here, depending on the source load.

The ATX standard defines limits of up to 120mV on the 12V rail, and up to 50mV on the other rails we show. We (and the community of PSU specialists in general) consider that the 12V limit is quite high, so we give a "recommended limit" of just half, 60mV. In any case you will see how the majority of sources that we test give excellent values.

In the transformation and rectification processes from household alternating current to the low voltage direct current required by the components, there are various energy losses. The efficiency concept allows quantifying these losses by comparing the power consumed (INPUT) with that delivered to the components (OUTPUT). Dividing the second by the first, we get a percentage. This is precisely what 80 Plus proves. Despite the conception that many people have, 80 Plus only measures the efficiency of the source and does not do any quality testing, protections, etc. Cybenetics tests efficiency and sound, although it altruistically includes the results of many other tests such as the ones we showed you in the review.

Another very serious misconception about efficiency is believing that this determines what percentage of your "promised" power the source can deliver. The truth is that the "real" power sources announce what they can give at the START. In other words, if a 650W source has 80% efficiency at this load level, it means that if the components demand 650W, it will consume 650 / 0.8 = 812.5W from the wall.

Last relevant aspect: the efficiency varies depending on whether we are connecting the source to a 230V electrical network (Europe and most of the world), or to 115V (mainly the US). In the latter case it is less. We publish Cybenetics data for 230V (if they have it), and since the overwhelming majority of sources are certified for 115V, it is normal for 230V to fail to meet the 80 Plus requirements advertised by each source.

For this test, Cybenetics tests the PSUs in an extremely sophisticated anechoic chamber with equipment worth tens of thousands of euros.

It is a room isolated from outside noise almost entirely, suffice it to say that it has a 300kg reinforced door to illustrate the great isolation it has.

Within it, an extremely accurate sound level meter capable of measuring below 6dbA (most have at least 30-40dBa, much more) determines the loudness of the power supply in different load scenarios. The speed the fan reaches in rpm is also measured.

This test basically measures how long the source is able to hold on once it is disconnected from the current while at full load. It will be a few crucial milliseconds to enable a safer shutdown.

The ATX standard defines 16 / 17ms (according to test) as a minimum, although in practice this will be more (we will not always be charging the PSU at 100% so it will be greater), and there are usually no problems with lower values.

It should be noted that in this Review we will use the data from the 650W version, since it is the only one that has been certified by Cybenetics for now. We do this after checking that it uses exactly the same internal platform as the 550W, with differences in components not especially large. We recommend you take a look at the test report published by Cybenetics:

Link to full Cybenetics report Cybenetics official website

Voltage regulation

The regulation of voltages is surprisingly decent even when it comes to a group regulated source, of course HEC and Corsair have done a good job trying to minimize as much as possible the problems of this type of internal design.

Curly

The curl on the minor rails is tight and decent.

On the 12V rail, the ripple remains at levels contained in loads of less than 90%, while at maximum load it trips but remains at more than acceptable levels.

Efficiency

Efficiency levels are somewhat higher than expected at this efficiency level, and they do not have too much to envy to higher sources thanks to the fact that the efficiency at 230V (voltage used in Europe) is always higher than that obtained at 115V (North American voltage), so with a simple Bronze source we can expect values ​​that are not too far from 90%.

We have decided to compare CV efficiency with the other two affordable Corsair ranges (CX and VS), and we can see similar efficiency levels at low loads (albeit somewhat low for CV and surprisingly high for VS), while from 20% load the differences are well appreciated, with the CV located between the VS (which only has 80 Plus White certification) and the CX (which, although it has Bronze certification, thanks to the use of better internal technologies, manages to win in efficiency).

Hold-up time

Hold-up time Corsair CV650 (tested at 230V)	14.3 ms
Data extracted from Cybenetics

The hold-up time is low, and is outside the minimum required by the ATX standard, although in real life it will not cause problems with UPSs or motherboards as soon as there is a power outage.

Sonority

The loudness levels are reasonable, this is a source that will not cause problems for a large part of users, but it is certainly not suitable for those who are demanding with silence. And it is that although the speed control is reasonably relaxed, no sound miracles can be performed with a Yacht Loon D12SH-12, which is a very basic fan.

Fortunately, Corsair has not included a semi-passive mode in this source, aware that it is a painful decision with many drawbacks and zero advantages when it comes to a low cost source, which would require having the fan constantly turning on and off, even in idle. Other manufacturers think more about marketing than about the quality and longevity of their products and begin to include them in low-end sources.

Final words and conclusion on Corsair CV550

Corsair continues to expand its product catalog, now positioning itself in the market for affordable Bronze fonts, with the new CV range being between the VS and the CX.

However, it is true that the closest range to this new source is undoubtedly the VS, and that is that in fact the most notable difference between the two is simply efficiency, this is illustrated if we compare the most relevant aspects for the user (such as we will do in the table below) between these three ranges:

	Corsair VS	Corsair CV	Corsair CX
Maker	HEC	HEC	CWT or Great Wall
Primary topology	Double forward	Double forward	LLC
Secondary topology	Group regulation	Group regulation	DC-DC
Fan	Sleeve	Sleeve	Rifle
Wiring type	Mesh and colored	Mesh and colored	Mesh and black
Efficiency level	80 Plus White	80 Plus Bronze	80 Plus Bronze
Warranty period	3 years	3 years	5 years

Given this, we believe that the new CV can serve as a kind of "updated VS", but it is much further from what we would like from the CX range, a model that we usually recommend widely on tight budgets because the vast majority of its characteristics are quite good. For example, Corsair could have opted to include a Rifle fan and a DC-DC design in this new range, and it would already earn many more recommendation points from us.

Still, it must be made clear that, despite what has been indicated, the internal components used in this source are not bad at all, as they are still light years away from most models that are seen for this price, especially those of questionable brands that, for example, promise in their sources exaggerated powers that they really do not have.

Cybenetics tests also show quite decent electrical performance, despite using an outdated internal group regulation design, and it is also noteworthy that the protection system is quite complete, so we can generally speak of a reasonably reliable source.

These sources will sell around 40-45 euros for the 450W model, 45-50 euros for the 550W model, and 60-65 euros for the 650W model.

Since they all use the same internal platform and connectors, the most reasonable choice seems to be the CV450 or CV550 because of price, as currently no affordable equipment ever requires a 650W source.

We conclude then that the new CV range is an option to consider in affordable equipment, where the investment of 50 euros cannot be reached in source, as an improved alternative to the VS, but which is still widely surpassed by the CX of the brand itself, whose choice we recommend prioritizing.

Advantage

• Surprisingly decent performance even when it comes to a group-regulated source. Affordable price, just 40-45 euros for the 450W model. Quite complete set of protections. Decent internal construction with a good selection of components.

Disadvantages

• Basic fan with sleeve bearings. Slightly unsightly colored wiring. It is still a somewhat vitaminized VS, instead of being in an intermediate range between this and the CX range. Somewhat outdated group regulation design. Same number of connectors in all the models, and considering that the source is oriented to simple equipment, it has no real advantage to spend € 20 more on the 650W model (for example) compared to the 450.

The Professional Review team awards him the silver medal.

Corsair CV550

INTERNAL QUALITY - 70%

SOUND - 70%

WIRING MANAGEMENT - 65%

PROTECTION SYSTEMS - 85%

CYBENETICS PERFORMANCE - 70%

PRICE - 75%

73%